My name is Bryan, but most people call me Zug. I’m a user experience (UX), product development, and operations leader deeply rooted in Seattle’s tech community. I’ve led teams at Meta, Zillow, Amazon, Techstars, and Children’s Hospital Stanford.

I’m the co-author of Why Design Is Hard with Scott Berkun – a book about why good design is so difficult to achieve inside organizations, and what leaders can do about it.

I’m also co-founder of Ignite Seattle, the public speaking event where people gather to share diverse ideas, hear challenging stories, and build curious, open-minded community.

You can reach me at bryanzug@gmail.com

Résumé  +  Artifacts

Links
Résumé  |  Linkedin  |  Bluesky  |  Instagram

Field Notes
Case Studies + Super Powers + GoldiOps

What gets me up in the morning?

Developing high performing & generous teams is my jam.

I love helping disparate tribes recognize the beauty in one another and collaborate toward creating things they could never do alone: designers and developers, pragmatists and dreamers, right anglers and curvers, bizdev and writers, skeptics and believers.

I give first to those around me, because I am forever in debt to those who gave first to me.

Maybe we can step into better stories

I live in Seattle with my amazing wife Jen, my daughter Rue, and my son Thomas. When not doing geek stuff, my family and I hang out with artful and thoughtful makers in urban Seattle – a muster of misfits who believe there are better stories out there than those dominated by entropy, sorrow, fear, and tears – and anytime we find ourselves in a dead-end story, we have the freedom to step into a better one.